What Buddha taught - Walpola Rahula,

Member of the Institute de France, Prof. of College de France Director of the Buddhist Studies at the School of Higher Studies (Paris)

WalPola Rahula,

Here is an exposition of Buddhism conceived in a resolute modern spirit by one of the most qualified and enlightened representatives of the religion. The Rev. Dr. W Rahula received the traditional training and education of a Buddhist monk in Cylon, and held eminent positions in one of the leading monastic institutes (Pirivena) in that island, where the Law of the Buddha flourishes from the time of Asoka and has preserved all its vitality up to this day. Thus brought up in an ancient tradition, he decided, at this time when all traditions are called in question, to face the spirit and the methods of international scientific learning. He entered the Cylon University, obtained the B A Honours degree (London), and then won the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Cylon University on a highly learned thesis on the History of Buddhism in Cylon. Having worked with distinguished Professors at the University of Calcutta and come in contact with adepts Of Mahayana (the Great Vehicle), that form of Buddhism which reigns from Tibet to the Far East, he decided to go into the Tibetan and Chinese texts in order to widen his ecumenicism, and he has honoured us by coming to the University of Paris (Sorbonne) to prepare a study of Asanga, the illustrious philosopher of Mahayana, whose principal works in the original Sanskrit are lost, and can only be read in their Tibetan and Chinese translations. It is now 8 years since Dr. Rahula is among us, wearing the yellow robe, breathing the air of the Occident, searching perhaps in our old troubled mirror a universalized reflection of the religion which is his.

The book, which he has kindly asked me to present to the public of the West, is a luminous account, within reach of everybody, of the fundamental principals of the Buddhist doctrine, as they are fount in the most ancient texts, which are called "The Tradition" (Agama) in Sanskrit and "The Canonic Corpus" (Nikaya) in Pali. Dr. Rahula, who possess an incomparable knowledge of these texts, refers to them constantly and almost exclusively. Their authority is recognized unanimously by all the Buddhist schools, which were and are numerous, but none of the which were deviates from those texts, except which the intention of better interpreting the spirit beyond the letter. The interpretation has indeed been varied in the course of the expansion of Buddhism through many centuries and vast regions, and the Law has taken more than one aspect. But aspect of Buddhism here presented by Dr. Rahula - humanistic, rational, Socratic in some respects, Evangelic in others, or again almost scientific - has for its support a great deal of authentic spiritual evidence which he only had to let speak for themselves.

The explanations which he adds to the quotations, always translated which scrupulous accuracy, are clear, simple, direct, and free from all pedantry. some among them might led to discussion, as when he wishes to rediscover in the Pali source all the doctrines of Mahayana; but his familiarity with those sources permits him to throw new light on them. He addresses himself to the modern man, but he refrains from insisting on comparisons just suggested here and there, which could be made with certain current of thought of the contemporary world: socialism, atheism, existentialism, psycho - analysis. It is for the reader to appreciate the modernity, the possibilities of adaptation of a doctrine which, in this work of genuine scholarship, is presented to him in its primal richness.

-Foreword from the book by Paul Demieville.